Introduction
So, you’re considering becoming a truck driver? Dreaming of hitting the open road, escaping the monotony, and embracing a life where every day is an adventure? Well, the world of trucking offers all that and more. In this post, I’ll paint a vivid picture of both the glamorous and the grimy sides of trucking, helping you decide if this rollercoaster is the right ride for you.
First and Foremost the Experience Is What You Make It
Trucking is the type of profession where you can get out of it what you put into it and the type of person you are tremendously affects the type of experience you can have. This is because there is such a wide range of experiences possible. So whether you make your experience glamorous or grimy is largely up to you. For me, trucking is awesome because I’m a person that loves a wide range of experiences. I enjoy staying in luxury hotels but am also comfortable backpacking across Bolivia with no money. I am also an extremely glass-half-full person and seeing the good in every situation while trucking helps me find lots of glamor throughout my trucking experience. However, for this post, I will take off my rose-colored glasses and give it to you straight–the glamor as well as the grime–so you can get an idea if trucking could be right for you.
Trucking Glamor vs. Grime
Bathroom/Showering Glamorous:
Truck stop showers can be similar to those you would find in a nice hotel. Many are newly renovated, spacious, have skin-peeling water pressure, and are cleaned after each use.
Bathroom/Showering Grimy:
Lack of a daily shower – You won’t always have the opportunity to shower and some days, wiping down with wipes and changing underwear is the only option.
Using portable toilets – At some shippers and receivers portable toilets are the only option for using the restroom.
Sleeping Glamorous:
I put a purple mattress in my truck so now the most comfortable place I can possibly sleep is my truck. It’s more comfortable than my home and it’s more comfortable than any fancy hotel bed I’ve ever slept in.
The privacy, blackout curtains in trucks allow you to create a dark cocoon-like effect that makes for a really effective sleeping environment even when it’s bright outside.
Sleeping Grimy
Noisy, fumy trucks – Sleeping next to other trucks idling their engines can create an unpleasant and sometimes dangerous environment. I once was awakened by the exhaust fumes seeping into my window from a truck that had parked next to me after I had fallen asleep. I couldn’t get back to sleep for almost the rest of the night and because I can typically always quickly go back to sleep I suspect it was because the fumes I inhaled either acted as a stimulant or my body’s natural self-preservation mode kicked in to wake me up so that I didn’t die in my sleep. Nearly dying in your sleep, definitely grimy.
I once had bed bugs in my truck because they were on a mattress that I received from the trucking company’s supply depot.
I don’t idle my engine for heat so it gets pretty frigid sometimes, especially when getting out of bed in the morning.
Varied sleep schedule: I’ve had success keeping a set schedule much of the time but inevitably you will have to wake up and go to bed at different times as a truck driver. If your definition of glamorous is being well rested and getting beauty sleep every night then expect some grimy sleeping nights.
Health & Fitness Glamorous
I have been able to maintain an exceptional level of health and fitness while trucking and have more energy to exercise than when I worked a more stressful 9 to 5.
Fitness spa days: I am able to enjoy frequent, unhurried gym days while trucking. I spend half the day in the gym partaking in all the amenities on offer, such as weights, Peloton, sauna, steam room, whirlpool, and shower.
Health & Fitness Grimy
Sitting all day: Remaining seated the majority of the day makes it hard to burn off all those truck-stop fast food dining options.
Bumpy roads can make for a jarring experience for your back and neck.
Travel and Adventure Glamorous
You can travel and visit places throughout the country with the frequency of a millionaire without being one. Only a wealthy person would be able to go to as many places as regularly as a trucker can.
You can travel to specific festivals or concerts or follow an artist across the country if you wanted to. Earlier this year I was able to see Beyonce at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas. As a trucker, I had the opportunity to see top talent at an awesome new venue, in the most festive of places. Can’t beat that!
Experiencing the national parks: America’s national parks are world-renowned. Many people have national parks on their bucket list.
Savor your trips more: Not having to spend money on flights or any other mode of transportation to get to your travel destination helps you enjoy your trip more. First, because you haven’t spent money to get there, you don’t have such high expectations because you need the trip to be worth the investment. I’ve found that lowered expectations often make for a more enjoyable trip. Second, not having to pay to get there helps you to savor the trip more because you don’t feel like you have to cram every single thing into it. As a trucker, you always know you can just do it on the next visit. All of this makes for a less frenetic and more glamorous way to travel and explore.
Travel and Adventure Grimy
Truckstops and truck parking are not always in the best neighborhoods. These locations may have limited food options and may not always feel the safest.
Misconstrued as homeless: I suspect some of my activities give homeless vibes. Sometimes I may sit in a cafe, library or Planet Fitness all day on days I’m not driving. I need to wash up and brush my teeth in random restaurant bathrooms. I have a folding chair I like to sit in to get out of the truck and I once had a police officer come out of Publix and tell me I couldn’t sit in front of the store.
Food and Dining Glamorous
You can eat items in the region for which they are famous. This truly does make the dining experience extra special. Wait to eat clam chowder only in Rhode Island, lobster in Maine, beignets in New Orleans etc.
Food and Dining Grimy
Eating fattening foods – Although lots of truck stops have Subway restaurants, many others typically have fast food meal options that offer fried foods and burgers.
Cycling Glamorous
You get to experience the jewel of each place without it becoming commonplace or getting old. This applies to travel in general but I really enjoy cycling so I especially love that I get to experience the best bike ride each place has to offer while doing them infrequently enough so that the ride overwhelms me with awe each and every time.
Cycling Grimy
Having to cycle in places where cycling is uncommon. In places not accustomed to seeing riders, the drivers lack conscientiousness towards them and riding can feel very dangerous. After checking out my clothing, one well-meaning Georgian exclaimed that I looked too well-dressed to be on a bike.
Additional Trucking Glamor
Less chores – There’s no cooking or cleaning the dishes because you eat out most of the time.
More/Better Quality Family Time – Despite being on the road a lot, I’ve been able to spend more time with my parents than I did when I worked a traditional job. It’s been a blessing to be able to have this type of adult relationship with them especially as they get older. This one may not exactly fit the description of glamorous but it sure is a priceless luxury.
Meeting people from all walks of life – A lifestyle of freedom makes it more likely you will meet others with similar lifestyles, such as other business owners and artists.
Additional Trucking Grime
No external signifiers: This will not apply to every trucker, but some will view you negatively for not having a home or a car. Over time, these negative opinions from others could affect one’s self-image or self-esteem.
Constant tidying up – The truck has a small living space so, to keep things organized, there’s a lot of moving things to get to something else and then putting it all back in place. If you’re not the type of person that puts things back in their place your truck could quickly get extremely messy and cluttered.
Trucking As a Way to Greater Happiness by Stepping Off the Hedonic Treadmill
So now that you understand how trucking can be a unique blend of glamor and grime, here is an unexpected way this dichotomous yin and yang can benefit your levels of happiness. The hedonic treadmill is a way to describe the reason people keep needing more, bigger, better, of something to stay happy. It states that once you get the item you were longing for, you quickly get used to it, returning back to your state of longing or discontent.1 Even way before this theory, a very rich Roman philosopher named Seneca learned that to be happier he needed to periodically deprive himself of his riches so that he could appreciate them again. He is quoted as saying,
“Set aside a certain number of days, during which you shall be content with the scantiest and cheapest fare, with course and rough dress, saying to yourself the while is this the condition that I feared.”
Psychology Today magazine further supports this idea, suggesting that intentional withholding of pleasurable experiences can enhance the enjoyment of those moments when they become available again. Scarcity, it appears, prompts people to savor experiences more deeply, leading to increased happiness.2
Trucking’s interplay between glamor and grime naturally does this for you. When you have been out on the road awhile and return to the comforts of home they feel extra special. For example, my family is always so amused by how extremely excited I get in a normal grocery store. The limited truck parking at regular grocery stores prevents me from going very often so each visit is a special occasion. When was the last time you felt awe in the grocery store? Another commonplace thing that I have come to savor is toast. Warm and freshly buttered toast is something that I especially look forward to enjoying when I go home. I also look forward to drinking a good alcoholic beverage (preferably a good Scotch or Bourbon) because trucking restricts access to this indulgence on the road.
It’s not just food that you come to savor more. You also savor experiences. Preparing a meal at home, taking a hot shower first thing in the morning, and that moment your hometown skyline comes into view are all seemingly normal things that you will derive more happiness from once you’re a trucker.
Some Types of Trucking Grime Are Self-Inflicted and Could Be Avoided
Trucking has a broken windows problem and I am not talking about cracked windshields. The “broken windows theory,” suggests that visible signs of disorder and neglect in a community can lead to an increase in those unwanted and antisocial behaviors. The theory suggests that if small signs of disorder, like broken windows, are ignored or left unrepaired, they can signal a lack of social control and encourage more serious offenses. In the context of the trucking industry, the broken windows phenomenon manifests in various ways. For instance, it’s very common to encounter:
- debris swept out of trailers onto the ground
- smelly urine poured onto the ground and discarded pee bottles,
- litter and trash tossed onto the ground,
- discourteous drivers line-skipping at fueling stations and parking in restricted areas, and
- drivers being impolite to shipper and receiver personnel.
These behaviors have become normalized so that a higher percentage of truck drivers engage in them. As a result of these unsavory habits, truckers have gotten a bad reputation and have been barred from parking in many places that used to welcome them. As truckers, we need to reverse these grimy behaviors and begin to restore our reputation. Wherever I go, my mantra is always to “leave people happier and places cleaner than I found them.” My hope is that more truckers will start to live this creed.
Conclusion
Trucking, mirroring life’s duality, has its glamorous moments as well as its grimy moments. It’s hard to say which one will be your view because trucking is a canvas where you paint the picture of your own journey. The trucking experience is not a one-size-fits-all; it’s shaped by individual perspectives, preferences, and attitudes. What makes the difference is the type of person you are and the effort you invest in creating your experience. The scarcity inherent in trucking can naturally foster an appreciation for the ordinary, turning routine activities like grocery shopping or enjoying a simple meal into moments of heightened happiness. However, it is crucial to address the broken windows problem within the trucking community. Undesirable behaviors, from littering to impoliteness, have marred the reputation of truckers.